U.S. Needs Patriot Act to Avert Attack, Kerik Says

Highly decorated former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik tells Newsmax that failure to renew the Patriot Act would place Americans in “serious jeopardy” and could lead to a “catastrophic attack” in the U.S.

Kerik, who was President George W. Bush’s nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security before he withdrew his name from consideration, also said the detainees at Guantanamo Bay who could be released into the U.S. remain determined to “create the demise” of America. Read more

Some Guantanamo Prisoners Could Be Released In U.S.

Some of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners could be released into the United States while others could be put on trial in the American court system, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday.

Holder, who was chosen by President Barack Obama to lead the administration’s efforts to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba within a year, said the review of what to do with each of the prisoners had begun. Read more

Cheney: Changes to Anti-Terrorism Policy Will Raise the Risk of Attack

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday that the Obama administration will “raise the risk” of a terrorist attack by overhauling his predecessor’s approach to the War on Terror.

Cheney sharply criticized Obama’s decisions to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, limit the methods CIA officers use to interrogate terror suspects and suspend military tribunals for alleged terrorists, saying those decisions taken together will make Americans less safe.

And he warned that the administration was transitioning to a pre-9/11 mindset that views terrorism as a “law enforcement problem” and not a military threat.

“When you go back to the law enforcement mode, which I sense is what they’re doing … they are very much giving up that center of attention and focus that’s required, and that concept of military threat that is essential if you’re going to successfully defend the nation against further attacks,” Cheney said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

He said the Bush administration’s tough anti-terrorism policies were “absolutely essential” to the military’s ability to gather the intelligence that helped foil “all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11.”

Cheney added: “President Obama campaigned against it all across the country. And now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack.”

via Cheney: Obama’s Changes to Anti-Terrorism Policy Will Raise the Risk of Attack – Presidential Politics | Political News – FOXNews.com.